Mesmerising dance with drones
Wayne Mcgregor’s +/- Human Roundhouse, NW1
At first, the seven white orbs floating above the waiting audience look like perfectly round helium balloons, ready to pop at any moment. But balloons don’t whirr and they don’t have tiny, fluttering fan-like hands that turn a thousand times a minute. It takes more than a second to realise these spheres are not powered by gas, but computers – and they’re attuned to every movement made by the 15 dancers on stage.
Installation by day, and dance performance by night, Wayne
Mcgregor’s Human +/- is the continuation of his lifelong fascination into the relationship between humans and machines. But what makes this different to his previous shows is the symbiotic nature of their relationship.
Together with longtime technology collaborator Random International, Mcgregor gently lifts the lid on a future in which humans and machines will not just work side by side, but rather will interact and collaborate with such a degree of intimacy that the distinction between us and them will become indistinguishable.
As the dancers furl their limbs skyward; the orbs shudder and reach for the ceiling. When the humans skulk to the ground, limbs entwined, the orbs hover ominously above their heads. But the patterns the drones create, the decisions they make, the paths they follow – these are all of their own choosing. It’s like watching a dance where both partners know the steps but neither knows they’re meant to be playing by the same rules. It’s utterly mesmerising.
The easy option would have been to pit the dancers and drones against each other, but Mcgregor is smarter than that. The choreography is unmistakably his – raw, grounded and charged with energy, yet performed with sublime control. The dancers sometimes stop mid-step to stare skyward, as if trying to predict the drones’ next move, but there’s no animosity, simply a quiet sort of acceptance. This is their world now.
The soaring roof and circular walls of the Roundhouse create the perfect environ for this microcosm. And because the only barrier between audience and dancer is a single rope, you’re privy to details that you’d never get from a stall seat: not just sweat and lithe limbs but the expressions that betray the messiness of human longing. Mcgregor has long had a talent for exposing his audiences to worlds that most of us could only ever dream of – and now he’s giving us the key to inhabit them. A remarkable step into a new frontier.
Until Aug 28. Tickets; 0300 6789 222